The Book of Mu: Essential Writings on Zen's Most Important Koan

by James Ishmael Ford (Editor), Melissa Blacker (editor), John Tarrant (Foreword)

The word "mu" is one ancient Zen teacher's response to the earnest question of whether even a dog has "buddha nature". Discovering for ourselves the meaning of the master's response is the urgent work of each of us who yearns to be free and at peace. "Practicing Mu" is synonymous with practicing Zen, "sitting with Mu" is an apt description for all Zen meditation, and it is said that all the thousands and thousands of koans in the Zen tradition are just further elaborations of Mu.

This watershed volume brings together over forty teachers, ancient and modern masters from across centuries and schools, to illuminate and clarify the essential the question of how to be most truly ourselves.

Includes writings Dogen, Hakuin, Dahui, Thich Thien-An Zenkei Shibayama, Seung Sahn, Taizan Maezumi, Sheng Yen Philip Kapleau, Robert Aitken, Jan Chozen Bays, Shodo Harada Grace Schireson, John Daido Loori, John Tarrant Barry Magid, Joan Sutherland, and many more!

Genres: Buddhism, Zen, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Religion, Philosophy

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2011

Reviews

[MxL · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of those Sacred titles Ill cherish for the rest of time.

recommended to anyone at all taking their Spiritual journey seriously. while not intended for such a purpose, the diverse array of essayists paints a well fleshed out picture of how meditation and meditative practices in general can look.

無

my sweet love, how deserving you are to have an entire book dedicated to your mystery...

slow-sip this one, let it soak and digest. I couldnt even begin to recount the lessons learned here but I will say this: through the Book of Mu I acquired my next album title!

A THOUSAND MILES THE SAME MOOD

ty 無!

[Doug Diegert · Rating 5 out of 5]

329 pages about mu! ha ha ha

[Will Kastner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A splendid Zen book, as imagined by Penn and Teller.

[Jane Doe · Rating 4 out of 5]

nothing

[Frank Jude · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, a whole book -- a collection from various teachers from the Japanese Zen koan tradition (with a sprinkling from Korean Seon and Chinese Ch'an) -- writing about one koan: MU! I wish I could have loved it, but I'm not a huge fan of koans. While some of the essays in this collection are brilliant, and inspiring, I found much of them overly jargonistic and repetitive. Some, like Barry Magid, John Tarrant, Kurt Spellmeyer, the contributions of the editors and even Elaine MacInnes, whose Christianity and mysticism turns me off, are truly creative and provoke deep insight. But much of the others come off as merely mouthing the standard Zen bravado and grand-standing, using words to obfuscate more than clarify.

SO, uneven, I cannot truly say "I like it" and won't likely be recommending it to many of my students. For the general reader, I will still be recommending Bring Me The Rhinoceros by John Tarrant, Elegant Failure by Richard Shrobe and even Sitting With Koans edited by John Daido Loori.

[Jason Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book in the authors' series this one focuses their attention on a single koan. The formalization of the koan study in Zen curricula seems sometimes like a conundrum in itself. This book has the same feeling. However, it is a good read. The essays are better than the book planned and the introduction.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book to return to repeatedly, built around a teaching that is, like so many great teachings, a problem - the koan Mu. The authors have compiled many different commentaries on the koan, ways of approaching it that show how different Zen teachers and lineages work with the koan. By doing so they also instruct the reader in good koan practice. Very fine.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Motivational insights are never enough, now to be MU is the play.